A few years ago, Kyla Pelletier had a vision for the athletics program at Spencer Middle School.
She hoped it would be a strong program with dozens of kids of all ages and abilities participating, and one that gave students a sense of belonging and school pride.
Now, PelletierB次元官网网址檚 vision has come to life, as the program has seen a boom in enrolment recently. This year alone, the school has more than 250 students participating in sports.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 increasing significantly every year. Last year we had a huge jump in athletes,B次元官网网址� said Pelletier, a Grade 7 teacher and the schoolB次元官网网址檚 athletics director. B次元官网网址淲e want to provide opportunities in all the sports that we can for the kids B次元官网网址� WeB次元官网网址檙e creating an athletic culture.B次元官网网址�
RELATED: Langford brothers share a knack of winning tournaments
The athletics program currently runs seven sports B次元官网网址� soccer, basketball, volleyball, rugby, badminton and track and field. New this year, theyB次元官网网址檝e also added a girls field hockey program. Of the schoolB次元官网网址檚 773 students, roughly 33 per cent are participating in at least one sport.
Over the past few years, Pelletier, along with a co-athletics director Leanne Bilous and a core group of coaches including Brad Lidstone and Bruce Biro, have helped raised the profile of the program. The volunteers have worked on opening lines of communications with an athletics board for students to check daily and sending out weekly emails to parents.
The dedication of the programB次元官网网址檚 19 teacher coaches and four community coaches, coupled with the realignment of the school from grades 7, 8 and 9 to grade 6, 7, and 8 in 2015, helped to boost the profile of the program as well.
B次元官网网址淚t [sports] helps with their brains, physical activities and helps with providing a sense of community belonging and connection and being part of something bigger than themselves,B次元官网网址� said Pelletier, adding coaches have formed a number of partnerships with local sports organizations to come to the school for talks and clinics.
B次元官网网址淚t also is attractive to those kids who maybe school isnB次元官网网址檛 their thing, but sports is, and so it keeps kids in school when they might not stay in otherwise B次元官网网址� WeB次元官网网址檙e really proud of what weB次元官网网址檝e built and weB次元官网网址檙e proud of the kids.B次元官网网址�
The program also helps students build fundamentals skills in a variety off sports to enable them to compete in high school athletics programs in the West Shore.
Like us on and follow us on
